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An Open Source eReader That's Free of Corporate Restrictions Is Exactly What I Want Right Now:
I get it. The Kindle and its ability to shop for and instantly buy books anywhere using wifi or Whispernet are incredibly convenient, and it’s what’s made Amazon’s hardware the obvious choice for consuming ebooks. But supporting awful companies like Amazon is getting harder and harder if you were born with a conscience, and right about now, an open source ebook reader, free of corporate restrictions, sounds like the perfect Kindle alternative.
A fully open-hardware eReader, it includes the following design specs: ARM Cortex M4 processor, 400x300 monochromatic resolution, microSD card reader, lithium-polymer rechargeable battery, audiobook-capable headphone jack, and audio-command-capable microphone.
The Open Book Project was born from a contest held by Hackaday and that encouraged hardware hackers to find innovative and practical uses for the Arduino-based Adafruit Feather development board ecosystem. The winner of that contest was the Open Book Project which has been designed and engineered from the ground up to be everything devices like the Amazon Kindle or Rakuten Kobo are not.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday January 30 2020, @07:18PM (32 children)
What are the manufacturing costs of something like that nowadays, one-off and small batches?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @07:36PM (30 children)
I'd say they're in the "who gives a shit" category.
Less than 1/4 the resolution in either direction, 1/16 overall. Is this specs for the 90s? because my eyeballs aren't what they were in the 90s, and neither are my expectations.
Your phone can hit up Project Gutenberg any time, and the last time I checked, the Lithium ebook reader was both free and played nicely.
YAFT (Yet Another Freetard Project) - because people get retarded when you combine "free" and "open source." Like they did with the Pine Linux Phone that can't make phone calls and has no sound. "Oh, but it's at the developer stage!" How many of those "it's at the developer stage" ever become products? Anyone remember the Linux Vivaldi tablet from 2012? I said it was stupid at the time, the world eventually agreed, but only after I got heavily criticized by a lot of starry-eyed freetards who said I didn't know what I was talking about, it died.
I said the same thing about UbuntuTV. Again, I didn't know what I was talking about - until it died. Anybody even remember UbuntuTV any more? Or the Ubuntu Music Store? Another dead-before-arrival idea.
You won't go broke betting against the success of this sort of project, since there's really no business case underlying any of them. Nobody is looking for an open source ebook reader with the worst display around. Here's a clue - you need a decent display for an e-reader.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by ze on Thursday January 30 2020, @09:11PM (5 children)
You attract some mod abuse, eh? :(
I thought pretty much the same thing when I saw that 400x300.
Heck even my original nook is 1024x768 iirc. Part of the appeal of eink was always its superior resolution, for crisp clean fonts. I didn't even know they made eink screens this low res!
It's also not like people haven't been interfacing projects with eink screens off ebay for years, afaik.
Still, the whole "freetard" point seems unfair and out of place. Most of these open-device projects are only meant to be DIY things for enthusiasts. They're rarely suitable to mass commercialization, and trying to is usually kinda stupid. But such projects for freedom enthusiasts are good to exist and get coverage, and deserve to be welcomed here without getting bashed too hard ;)
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @12:51AM (4 children)
Just in the last 3 hours I've gotten 23 troll mods, a bunch of flamebait mods, etc. And you want to know something? I don't care. I'm still at karma of 45, so mod-bomb away. There are plenty of people who agree with me.
The insane cheer-leading by people because something is "open" but doesn't do the job just begs for being called retarded - or worse, pathological and delusional. Most of the people doing the cheerleading are actually running Windows secretly.
Statistically, linux on the desktop is at a 20-year low. Just look at the stats for steam - you'd figure geeks and nerds, right? More than 95% Windows, and all but 0.33% of the rest are OSX (as of the end of 2019). 1 in 300 among geeks and nerds is a far cry from the turn of the century, when many people used Linux exclusively at home and as their main OS at work.
What's succeeded is closed-off versions, like Android and Chromebooks, run by an advertising company so they can suck up even more of your data. Hardly what we were thinking of as "open" at the turn of the century.
People don't even RTFA any more - attempting to point out that a prototype phone with no sound and no dialer isn't a phone, just a broken tablet, gets you mod-bombed. The vendors keep over-hyping them as a viable commercial project "some time real soon now", so they deserve being called out, as do the people falling for the hype when that hype is clearly contradicted by a couple of decades of history of failures of such projects.
Wilful ignorance is the gift that keeps on giving and giving. Dumb projects like Ubuntu Music and Ubuntu TV (remember Ubuntu TV - hyped all to shit at trade shows until it was discovered that it wasn't really Ubuntu TV, but SammyTV, an independent project to run linux on Samsung TVs). And Vodaphone stopped trying to sell Ubuntu Phone. Since 2014, they're just members of some sort of "advisory board" directed to exploring future possibilities of using Ubuntu on a phone. In other words, a way to back away from a failed product while saving face for a couple of suits.
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(Score: 1) by ze on Friday January 31 2020, @03:07AM (1 child)
I've never even heard of Ubuntu TV, though that's not terribly surprising. I was using MythTV nearly 20 years ago already, but the TV I have now is a loaner and its only signal input is my PC.
I agree a lot of lackluster projects get disproportionate attention, but that's typical of our dumb world in general. As are lip service cheerleaders. I think we're also just so desperate for our rights to be respected by our technology that we'll encourage anything that even seems to look in that direction, even if it doesn't get us there.
As for linux usage rates... I don't track that, but my impression is of a ton more linux users now than there were 20 years ago... It still feels like its own eternal september. AFAIK stats tend to be flawed, for example most gamers who use linux are still forced to use windows for most of their gaming, and a lot of linux users simply don't game, since programming is often fun for geeks and far more gratifying. And from what I hear, steam tends to be hostile to linux users trying to play popular multiplayer games, most of which don't have native ports, and so trigger the anti-cheat bans for being run in wine. Myself, I preordered the linux version of q3a back in the day (and still have the tin box), but I can hardly get into games anymore because they just feel like too much investment into going through motions, pressing the designated levers in a rat maze. When I game at all, it's usually a friend's console and more just as a social activity than anything else. Anyway, if there are legit stats that disagree with my impression, so be it, but it's sad, and to me even strange.
Personally, I've been using linux exclusively for nearly 22 years, and I'm only wondering if a bsd or something would be better, because linux is getting ruined by its misguided efforts to appeal to ignorance. Tech culture assumes everyone else is an idiot, treats them that way, and designs everything accordingly. So everyone's used to coasting on what's handed to them instead of learning to work their own shit like we do for everything else. People manage their finances, drive on the roads with each other, file taxes, DEAL WITH FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS. They can deal with fucking abstractions and complexity, ffs. It's not like a single one of our "intuitive" interface metaphors (boxes, buttons, sliders, etc) existed in the ancestral environment.
But no, linux had to go and emulate windows and start turning to shit. At least gentoo makes it easy enough to avoid the garbagey stuff, but I worry how long that'll last with some of it infesting everything. Windows and apple are aggressively non-options already. I used to recommend apple over windows to anyone who wouldn't be bothered to learn enough for linux, but while they don't seem to regret it, I kind of do. Maybe I was just being lazy and not feeling like helping them get up to speed :(
I feel like anyone who gets at least as far as learning to customize their pointer focus model and write shell scripts ought to grow pretty intolerant of the locked-down dumbed-down crap everyone else uses. I sure as hell have; win, mac, and anything like them behave in an actively obstructive manner in a constant and continuous way to me, and ever trying to use them is like trying to pull teeth from a rabid dog, but more infuriating.
I only recently got a phone, and indeed android is offensive. Not really more than other proprietary software, but still. As I said recently elsewhere: mobile OSs and apps are the worst kind of locked-down, dumbed-down, charge-for-everything, malware-infested, user-tracking, shady load of shit I've ever been subjected to.
Still, whenever I've seen stuff like ubuntu phone, they've always clearly been half-assed efforts with no viable target market, and I've never been surprised that they always fail. TBH I don't actually believe economic systems as we know them are capable of serving anything but corruption anyway; they never deliver more value than they're forced it, I don't care which systems people debate about or who runs them or how. And in particular, trying to capitalize on freedom and openness is a tough fight at best, if not outright paradoxical. You can free slaves, or sell slaves, but you can't sell free slaves!
Anyway, tbh I'm glad I don't expect extant operating systems to prevail in any long term, it's all crap and getting worse. Machine-learning looks like the right fit for ideas and desires that've swirled through my head for decades before I knew what would enable them... I might just start working on that. /pipedreams
It is sad this site, like the rest of the internet, has suffered such a nosedive in comment and discussion quality. Up until a certain point, it was one of my favorite examples of quality discourse in a venue with anonymous posters, and I occasionally posted anonymously for years before I bothered registering, always trying to put enough effort and value in to provide a good example. I mainly registered because it seems more necessary now in order to meaningfully participate, because it's like the average level and expectation of comment quality (and stories, for that matter) dropped a few pegs across the board all at once about, what, about 3 and someodd years ago now? :(
Anyway, I'm mostly tiredly rambling. TBH I've frequently gotten the impression of you doing so as well, might help to disengage a bit? Maybe we should all take more naps. Just a thought.
(Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @03:33AM
I had to take it easy the last few days (broken rib from last February that never healed properly caused another pneumothorax Monday). Can you tell I'm bored? Can you? REALLY bored :-) Lots of naps to let it heal over yet again.
Canonical showed off UbuntuTV at CES in 2012 [ubuntu.com], which cost some real $$$.
this blog entry on their site is particularly embarassing in retrospect [ubuntu.com]
Didn't take long for over-hyped UbuntuTV "success" to turn to total failure. All the announced deals ... disappeared.
At the time, UbuntuOne was an online file storage and music service. That didn't work at all, so they re-positioned the name for a single sign-on service, which also failed.
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @07:42PM (1 child)
stfu, you ignorant whore. ubuntu touch is alive and well and running on my goddamn phone right now.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @08:36PM
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @09:29PM (8 children)
People might take you seriously if you stopped with 'retard'.
In my PC corner of the multiverse it is no longer an acceptable term - out of respect for fellow humans with a range of neurophysiological conditions.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @09:50PM (3 children)
The irony is that Barb is a mentally ill transsexual. Those who live in asylums should not throw shade.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Thursday January 30 2020, @10:04PM (1 child)
Isn't "microsoft shill" also a form of mental illness?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @11:00PM
Depends on how much it pays. A gig's a gig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:53AM
Hey, you'd be bitchy too if someone cut your dick off.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @12:32AM (2 children)
Since the term no longer applies to people with neurological cognitive problems, it's free to be used with freetards who are wilfully ignorant of the fact that free software has lost the battle, both with end users who don't want it, and large corporations who have co-opted it for their own ends.
It's over. Even steam is more than 95% Microsoft, a bit more than 3% Apple, and 0.33% linux. One out of three hundred among geeks is a pretty sad state of affairs. Far less than at the turn of the century.
And the software available as FOSS isn't exactly something to get excited about. Pretty much the same crap as 20 years ago. Except for Gnome - it works even worse now that they've "improved it".
Easy prediction - the next big thing in operating systems won't be any version of linux, but someone pulling an Apple and taking FreeBSD and creating another proprietary operating system. It's not like they have to get much market share - 0.33% among geeks, just how low is it with the general public?
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @01:48AM (1 child)
Using a term when others have cautioned you of it harmfulness is being a jerk for being a jerk's sake.
I would have thought someone in the rainbow community might understand that. Clearly not.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @02:36AM
I really don't care what freetards and libtards think. If the shoe fits ...
And stop being so pretentious. You don't give a shit either.
Also, I hate the term "differently abled." It's bullshit. Handicapped or crippled, sure. They describe reality, not making it like someone who is handicapped has a "differently abled" superpower. I'm visually crippled or handicapped, not "differently abled." I didn't get any mysterious special superpower when my retinas started crapping out.
Sure, I learned how to cross the street with my eyes closed. But anyone with ears that can hear can learn that with a day's work. My hearing didn't suddenly turn into super-hearing. Your other senses don't suddenly become more enhanced - you just pay more attention to them. No "different ability."
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(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday February 03 2020, @05:09AM
I think the term is still somewhat under dispute [youtube.com].
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @12:10AM (7 children)
YAFT (Yet Another Freetard Project)
Time for you to change your meds, babe. All those hormones and Xanax are makin' ya crazy! You know, if you show the doc the things you post here, he might get a better handle on how the drugs are interacting.
I don't believe for a second that you can't find a techie to help you build a system you can use comfortably, unless of course you act in meatspace like you do here.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @02:58AM (6 children)
I've built plenty of systems over the decades. But the fact remains, linux isn't fit for 99% of the population. The "model" for free software as enunciated by both RMS and the FSF was "give away the product for free, and make money off support."
That might have seen like a good idea in the '80s. But it doesn't work that way any more for consumers. They don't want a product that needs support. They won't buy a new car that needs oil changes every 3 months, a tuneup twice a year - that is now considered defective.
So you can't get consumers to use a product that needs too much support, and linux is exactly that product. It needs too much hand-holding of users because it doesn't run the software they want to run. It doesn't play the games they want to play. Their bosses can't open the spreadsheets and docs they send them.
I can and do still use linux, but it's really shit compared to, say Mandrake 7, or Opensuse when they made the switch from Suse.
Why would ordinary consumers put up with the lack of choice that comes with free software?
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(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday January 31 2020, @07:15AM (2 children)
Yet many consumers will (in this part of the world at least) turn down the opportunity to buy a car outright, preferring to lease it for a fixed period with servicing etc. included, because they look forward to switching to a lease on a newer model every few years.
The few car adverts I watch never quote monthly finance / hire purchase prices any more, it's always monthly leases.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @06:04PM (1 child)
Nobody considers servicing when buying or leasing a car. It's all about the monthly payments. And keep in mind - more than half of all cars sold are used, with no servicing included, and they STILL don't consider servicing costs.
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(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:56AM
Some customers must be interested in maintenance costs, othereise the likes of Kia wouldn't have advertising campaigns harping on about the 7 year warranty they offer with all their cars.
I am a buyer of used cars myself too. But the used market needs to be supplied by the buyers of new cars. I'm a bit surprised at people who prefer to rent a new vehicle for three years, as opposed to taking the hire-purchase or finance route which would leave them owning the vehicle at the end of the period. There'll be monthly payments whichever route you choose. Naturally, the dealers would prefer to lease the car out, as then they can get the second-hand sale price at the end of the lease period.
The whole thing feels like "Driving as a Service" to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @07:38AM
But the fact remains, linux isn't fit for 99% of the population.
So? You don't have to use it. That's freedom, babe!
You're just upset, it's making you irrational. You should calm down before you bust an artery.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday February 03 2020, @05:09AM (1 child)
Isn't Android a modified form of Linux?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday February 03 2020, @12:09PM
Not at all. Just as Android isn't Java. Android is a runtime. It currently runs atop a scaled back Linux, but like any runtime, it can be ported to other systems.
But it's pretty limited, so why bother?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @01:58AM
YAMP (Yet Another MicrosoftTard Product)
Remember Zune? Remember 'Works for sure'? Remember Microsoft BOB?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Friday January 31 2020, @02:10AM (5 children)
I agree it's a pretty crappy eReader - heck, it doesn't even come with a case, just a raw circuit board and components that you might need to solder on yourself.
Seems pretty clear they're not targeting the mainstream eReader market - they're targeting the Maker market.
Which is to say, they're explicitly targeting the sort of people people who think of all the other great things they could do with an eReader if the thing wasn't locked down and a huge headache to modify.
It's a souped-up Arduino with a couple buttons and a serviceble bitmap display that won't drain the battery, mounted on a well-tested circuit board with lots of expansion options. An eReader is just the lowest common denominator starting point for whatever projects you dream up for it.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @02:28AM (4 children)
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(Score: 4, Touché) by Immerman on Friday January 31 2020, @02:36AM (2 children)
You don't need a community for reading books either - and yet book clubs have been around forever.
And the Maker community is arguably more useful, since interesting tools techniques get shared around to enrich your skillset, rather than just interesting books to read.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @03:00AM (1 child)
If the maker community is so interesting, why is it dying, same as book clubs?
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @04:40AM
Those communities aren't dying, they just tell you they are, so that you'll go away and leave them alone.
You are shrill, judgemental, dismissive, oblivious, self-centered, paranoid and Dunning-Krugered. Just because someone is nice enough to say hello to a stranger does not make the a transfan psychokiller. The local alcoholics are not lusting after you in secret. Seriously, get some therapy.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @05:18PM
It might look that way, but locally, now the poseur arseholes involved in the 'Maker Movement' have all moved on to whatever the latest 'oooh shiny!' fad du jour is, we're starting to see people like engineers (both retired and current) and time served craftsmen getting involved and passing on their skills. They might have left it a bit too late for what were some local trade skills, had they gone this direction 20 years ago (we've had local 'community workshops' c/w lathes, mills etc on and off since the early 80's) they might have had a pool of a large number of people who actually worked in industries (e.g. foundries) who could have passed on their knowledge.
So no, not so much dying here, but changing into something more likely to actually be of practical interest to local people, unlike the '1001 cool uses for an Arduino/Pi/Avr/whatever' nonsense that was the focus. Of course, YMMV where you are.
(At home, looks at the nascent workshop...2x lathes, pillar drill, milling machine, hand-tools, various powertools, chainsaws, other workshop full of computers, soldering stations, scope and other test gear...)
<Teal'c>
Indeed
</Teal'c>
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday February 03 2020, @04:01AM
I'd be happy if I could use the linux system within my ebook reader as a linux system and program it.